Thiruvananthapuram: CBI special court will deliver its verdict in the Sister Abhaya murder case on December 22. The trial in the case concluded on December 10 with the prosecution’s reply arguments. Judge K Sanil Kumar posted the case for verdict on December 22.
The final argument in the case began on Nov 18 and continued till December 10. Prosecution’s arguments were based on the statements of witnesses Adakka Raju and Kalarkode Venugopalan and also on the medical reports that had found injuries on the head of Sr Abhaya that were ‘not inflicted by a fall into the well’.
Prosecution’s effort to present the narco-analysis report as evidence didn’t succeed as the accused got an order from the high court asserting that the report is not an admissible evidence. The court also didn’t allow to examine doctors who had performed narco-analysis as witnesses.
While arguing against the prosecution’s findings, B Raman Pillai, counsel for Thomas Kottoor, stressed that the prosecution had cooked up a tale and Kottoor became an accused as per that story only. The counsel argued that the statements of the witnesses against Kottoor were unreliable, doubtful and hence couldn’t be accepted as evidence. J Jose, the counsel for Sr Sephy, argued that the case was a suicide. Jose — who had argued for five days in defence of his counsel — died in Kochi , two days after concluding the arguments.
On Dec 10, the court asked CBI counsel whether they planned to prosecute witness Sanju P Mathew who turned hostile despite submitting a sworn statement before the magistrate. Counsel M Navas said CBI would file a petition in that regard soon.
The trial in the 28-year old case in which Fr Thomas Kottoor and Sr Sephy are the accused began in CBI special court on Aug 26, this year. During examination of witnesses, a few prosecution witnesses turned hostile by contradicting their original statements.
(source: TimesOfIndia)